National Vocations Awareness Week

 
I am grateful to Father Enrique for his bulletin messages over the last two weeks during my absence.  Following up his message from last Sunday, we conclude our observance of National Vocations Awareness Week by welcoming to our parish a number of people from various religious institutes who will be speaking at our Masses.  Please join me in welcoming our speakers.   
 
God does indeed have a call for each and every one of us.  The first and foundational vocation, of course, is our baptis
mal vocation to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to share in his mission.  Every other vocation is rooted in this baptismal calling to friendship with our Lord.  When we are truly aware of our identity and dignity as children of God and sisters and brothers of Jesus, then we will be eager to accept the more individualized calls which God presents to each of us. My own calling to priesthood only makes sense upon that basis of my appreciation that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, that he loves me and sacrificed his life for me.   
 
I am so grateful that God called me to the vocation of being a priest.  This calling is a precious one that has been full of surprises and blessings as well as plenty of challenges.  I love being a priest, find great joy and satisfaction priestly ministry.  Just as with every other vocation, there are bad days as well as good, there are sorrows as well as joys.  But my 46 years as a priest have been so fulfilling.  As I mentioned to some of the school children speaking with them about vocations in this past week, serving as a priest has not simply been rewarding but truly fun.  Serving as a priest has also been inspirational as I have been privileged to journey with so many people on our pilgrimages of faith.  Please continue to pray for me and all priests, that we live our vocations faithfully, and please pray for an increase in the number of vocations to the priesthood.   
 
Whatever our specific vocations – and most of us here at OLPH have already discovered and are living those vocations – I hope that none of us ever lose sight of the reality that God has given us that calling as a means of our sanctification and fulfillment.  And God has not only called us to those vocations but walks with us as we live them out.  May we always pray for God’s help in living out our calling and finding genuine fulfillment in them. 
 
Last weekend we celebrated the great feasts of All Saint and All Souls.  We extend those celebrations throughout November which is a month dedicated to prayer for the faithful departed.  As is our custom here at OLPH, from All Saints Day until the feast of Christ the King, we post the names of the people whose funerals were celebrated in our parish over the last twelve months.  I invite you to walk up and down the aisles, peruse those names, and offer prayer that each and every one will pass through the purification of purgatory to the fullness of joy at the banquet of heavenly glory.  Some of those names will be familiar to you, others will be names you have never encountered.  Each is a brother or sister in Christ.  And as we pray for the deceased, we know well that someday we will face the moment of our own death.  Since we have that vocation of being disciples of Jesus, we need never fear death.  So let us pray for ourselves as well, that we will live well and be prepared for that inevitable moment when the Lord calls us to our final vocation – the perfect fulfillment of the beatific vision, of eternal union with Him.   
 
Jesus, thank you for your vocation as our Lord and Savior.  Holy Mary, who said “yes” to God’s call for your role in the plan of salvation, “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”   
 
Father Craig